Fishing, in general, is a rapidly expanding sport and every year more fishermen are converting from bait and spinning to fly-fishing. Fly-fishing offers more of a sport experience than a hunting experience. In fact, many fly fishermen try to avoid harming the hooked fish and return them to the water. Only fish that are so injured that they could not survive in the water are not returned. Not only is skill required in the hooking of fish but many fly fishermen tie their own flies.
There are many components to a fly and many types of flies. Though much attention has been directed to new and improved materials, little attention has been directed to hooks, even though fishing efficiency and fly characteristics are related to the hook. Strike potential, number of fish hooked and number of fish netted can all be increased by appropriate selection of the hook. Furthermore, most flies are formed of lightweight materials and do not offer much water resistance. They, therefore, have a poor angle of ascent or descent as they travel through the water. Most hooks on the market are not designed specifically for fly tying. They were originally designed for other applications.
The hooks available for fly tying have four types of eyes: turned up, turned down, ring and looped. The bend of the eye affects the attitude of the fly as it is pulled through the water. A down-turned eye causes the fly to swim at an up-turned angle and a turned-up eye causes the fly to swim at a slight diving angle. However, the flies using up- or down-turned eyes do not have good stability and can reverse. Turned down eyes can block large portions of the bite of a hook. Furthermore, since the bent eyes present the hook at an angle to the fish s mouth and tissue, the initial hooking is not as deep if the hook was straight and the pulling force is also not as forceful since only the component of the force parallel to the shaft of the hook is transmitted to the barbed end.
There are straight eye hooks containing a closed ring eye. Ring eyes do not provide a pleasing or realistic appearance on the head of a finished fly. A tapered loop eye provides a more streamlined profile and forms a much more attractively appearing fly. Tapered looped eyes are formed by drawing the wire to a taper and/or grinding the end of the shank to a smooth taper and then folding the tapered end back alongside the shank to form an eye. This provides an excellent platform to build a fly and provides the best appearing and streamlined configuration for the eye. Smoothly ground tapers do not cut the fragile leader and can be neatly and tightly bent to form a loop that is closed to retain the leader. However, tapered loop eyes are always provided in the up- or down- turned form.
Ring eyes present other problems. Ring eyes are usually not fully closed. The leader gets in the gap and the rough edge of the wire cuts the leader. If the eye is in-line with the shank, the fly will tend to hinge. The optimum hook for fly tying contains an eye formed of tapered wire with a straight loop disposed in a plane perpendicular to a plane through the shank and bend.
The patent literature does not disclose a straight loop, tapered eye hook. Shakespeare, Jr. (827,759), Jamison (1,502,781) and Forsyth (2,539,735) disclose a straight ring eye without a taper. Forsyth and Rice and Woodhead (2,841,914) dispose a ring eye in a plane parallel to the shank and bend. The only patent showing a straight loop eye formed of tapered wire in a fish hook is Sloan (1,635,644). However, Sloan forms the eye parallel to the bend which will cause hinging and the shank is provided with an offset bend.
Other examples of straight ring or loop eyes are found in the following patents:
______________________________________ PATENTEE PATENT NO. ______________________________________ Cox 975,833 Foss 1,420,422 Fitch 1,851,698 Shaff 1,953,642 Knell 2,038,940 Grant 2,178,301 Sivey et al 2,533,523 Kreps 2,544,796 Runerle 4,411,089 Rye 4,557,065 ______________________________________
Flies are usually formed of lightweight materials such as thread, fur and feathers so that they float on top of the water. When using flies for streamer or bait fish application, it is desired to have the fly sink as fast as possible when casting toward the bank of a river or lake or when reeling the fly in. Providing erratic motion also can provide a swimming motion simulating a live insect. Bills or other appendages are commonly provided on plastic and metal lures to provide erratic or diving characteristics.
Though there are no commercial bills or foils being marketed, the patent literature has examples of devices that have been designed to affect the movement of flies through the water as follows:
______________________________________ PATENTEE PATENT NO. ______________________________________ Hayes 1,490,389 Peckinpaugh 1,781,598 Davenport 2,018,622 Richards 2,231,507 Weesner 2,290,512 McFarland 2,587,189 Lauterwasser 2,594,038 Sharps 2,651,133 Dudley 2,683,323 Markquart 2,696,693 Lievense 3,495,350 Waters, Jr. 3,729,850 Neal 3,864,863 Rogers 4,149,334 Pond 4,380,884 ______________________________________
The bills or foils shown in these patents become integrated with the fly usually by being tied onto the hook by thread or filament. The bill or foil becomes fixed and can only be utilized for inducing upward or downward movement of the fly. The foil must be separately manipulated during assembly of the fly.
Hill, Jr. (1,2905,370) places a weight with a flat surface above the bend of a hook. Porter (2,185,666) adds a flat sinker plate near the eye of a hook. Leonardi (2,808,678) places a weight on the shank of a lower hook in a double hook device. Spencer (3,604,741) forms a triple hook within a ball-shaped sinker. Ostrom (3,500,576) adds a weight near the eye of a lure. Kochevar (3,638,347) attaches a moldable sinker to a line. Gwaldacz (4,530,180) adds round weights to the shank of a bent hook.
Another problem is that certain flies become heavier than desired toward the eye end of the hook or lay over on their sides. The fly will tend to dip and not present itself in a realistic manner to the fish. The effect of imitating or simulating an insect is diminished. This problem has been recognized and various measures have been designed to counterbalance the fly by adding weight to the hook. A typical measure used presently is to wrap with lead wire
Koch (U.S. Pat. Nos. 745,066 and 775,727) placed a sliding bead on the bend of the hook to act as a sinker. The hook is designed for minnows, not for fly tying. These weights are not stationery and do not form a smooth surface with the shaft of the hook. Flies made with the Koch hooks may float more horizontally but the weights are unattractive and will interfere with hooking and catching fish. The beads significantly reduce the area of the hook on which the fish bites resulting in poorly embedded barbs. Such hooks frequently tear loose leaving a wounded fish who is then ready prey for other fish.
A hook that is both attractive to the purchaser, realistically appearing to the fish and providing improved balance and swimming characteristic to a fly is a hook formed of cylindrical wire having a smoothly reduced diameter from the tip of the barb to the bend and then a taper extending from the bend through the eye to form a low profile tapered loop eye. A similar hook without a tapered eye was shown in Shakespeare, Jr. (827,757) who added extra metal at the bend to increase the strength of a hook while decreasing its weight.